Thursday, September 1, 2011

Neuropathologists have finally made it into pop culture! Forensic neuropathologist Peter Cummings, MD has recently published a novel entitled The Neuropathology of Zombies. I just read a free Kindle sample of the book, and it's fantastic. The print version of the book will be out next week. Cummings has a website devoted to the book, which even features a zombie neuropathology report complete with a description of the leptomeninges as being "opacified with a black and green discoloration". He may get a movie deal out of this and be able to quit his day job, a la Michael Crichton, MD. Dr. Cummings tells me his novel is the first part in a trilogy. Just to whet your appetite, here's the first paragraph of The Neuropathology of Zombies:

"Marcus Ellsbury was ill. His wife ran out to the drugstore, returning with a bag full of pills. She opened the door to their hotel room and stepped inside. What stood before her was something else. The sound of her scream was silenced by the sudden and violent severing of her spinal cord. Marcus lingered over her dead body, blood dripping from his hands."